These high school students from Ohio really can restore your faith in our nation’s next generation. When the atheists at the Freedom From Religion Foundation did what they always do – send legally dubious threat letters to school districts pretending that the Constitution prohibits what is actually very constitutional behavior- the administration at East Liverpool High School backed down.

The seven decades-long practice of East Liverpool High School’s choir singing the Lord’s Prayer at graduation was going to come to an end because the school district didn’t want to fight a legal battle.

This is how the FFRF wins – they lie, they intimidate, and they get people to back down.

The Department of Justice announced a radical new policy regarding transgendered students access to the bathroom of their choice in public schools. The gist? Bow down to the Obama Administration’s radical views on transgendered children and allow them access to whatever bathroom they want, or loose all of your federal funding.

And while this is shocking and outrageous, the implications of the DOJ policy are more far-reaching and dangerous than we could have ever imagined.

First, the very act of teaching biology and human physiology will be hate speech unless it’s modified to conform to the new transgender “facts.” Teachers will have to take great pains to note that chromosomes, reproductive organs, hormonal systems, and any other physical marker of sex is irrelevant to this thing called “gender,” which, “factually,” is a mere state of mind.

Second, any statements of dissent — from teachers or students — will be treated as both “anti-science” and “discriminatory,” contributing to a “hostile environment” that schools are legally bound to prohibit. This prohibition will go well beyond the use of pronouns and into discussions of what it means to be male and female. The argument that a “girl” with a penis remains a boy will be treated exactly the same as an argument that blacks are inferior to whites or Arabs inferior to Jews.

Third, public schools will now be even further opposed, doctrinally and legally, to orthodox Christianity. Christian parents who send their children to public schools need to be aware of the new “facts.” They will be taught not only that their churches are factually wrong in their assessments of sex and gender but that they are actually bigoted and hateful — comparable to white supremacists.

Fourth, the administration’s actions set a key political precedent. Federal funding — long seen as a boon to local schools — is now clearly and unmistakably an instrument of national control. The federal education bureaucracy is stocked with energetic and creative progressives, and last week’s letter represents just one more step in an ongoing effort to turn money into mandates.

Finally, because the administration’s edict is tied to funding, not even civil disobedience can block its enforcement. In other words, state officials can “defy” the edict all they want, but unless a court rules in their favor, the administration need merely stop a bank transfer to enforce its “guidance.” This would place citizens of dissenting states in the unenviable position of either complying — and sacrificing their kids’ liberty and safety — or defying and seeing cash-strapped schools lose millions of dollars in public support, all while they continue to pay taxes to fund progressive jurisdictions.

The government in Alberta, Canada has distributed new guidelines to all schools – public and private – outlining how a school should treat children who identify as transgender. Citing the “safety” of children, the document explains that schools need to take these steps because, “Self-identification is the sole measure of an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”

A lawsuit in San Diego, California has been filed after a Christian school decided not to enroll a child who has two moms. The school cites their religious beliefs against homosexual lifestyles as the reason for not admitting the child, and the child’s mothers are now filing suit against the school claiming discrimination. [Read more…]

My home county has been in the news all week, thanks to a “5 Pillars of Islam” assignment given at the local middle school. Although parents are not upset that their children are learning about Islam, they are upset that the assignment had the children write and recite the shahada, the Islamic declaration that there is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. [Read more…]